Drunken Kisses & Happily Ever After
by xoxonceuponamidnightdrearyxox
Summary: Astoria knows that miracles don't happen.


**A/N: This was a story I wrote that I didn't want to discard **

**For Love From a Muggle & Izabel Lightwood**

**Disclaimer: I Own Nothing**

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Astoria knows miracles don't happen, so she doesn't hope for anything when he pulls her into that drunken kiss on Christmas Eve. Knows he doesn't mean it – when he murmurs _I love you _over and over, his gray eyes staring, into her green ones as he kisses her temples, her chin, her neck. She doesn't even think it will turn into anything when he twists his index finger into her blonde tresses, not for a moment. Because she doesn't believe in miracles, she's down to earth, she's intelligent and she knows he's going to wake up tomorrow and regret every kiss, every touch, every whisper. If he remembers at all.

So when he corners her on Christmas Day and says he loves her she doesn't know what to think except she's sixteen years old and this doesn't make any sense, after all she hardly knows him. But he's staring at her just waiting for her to say something, anything, and his eyes are so beautiful. So she tells him she has to go check on Daphne, which doesn't make any sense because she's sure that Daphne is snogging Nott in some corner of the Malfoy Manor, or maybe Blaise, because Blaise is here too and Daphne has never been one for commitment.

He lets her brush past him and Astoria knows better than to hope that he wants her to say it back because she doesn't believe in miracles and he's Draco Malfoy so he'll probably move on to another girl that's prettier, older, and doesn't bite her nails or tell bad lies. But he doesn't and so she starts to hope – just a flicker, a twinkle, so infinitesimal it can't be real, but it's there.

But then she has to go back to school and that hope is snubbed out like a candle because it can't possibly last now and he won't hold out for her two more years and it all started out with one drunken kiss and that can't be a good sign.

But he writes her on the very first day back and Astoria waits a full hour before picking up her quill and another two hours before sending off her owl with a response so he won't think she's been sitting by her window waiting for a response.

And he writes her everyday and her heart always leaps when she sees his owl flying towards her, but she keeps reminding herself that it won't work out, that he won't wait forever, and that he's probably playing with her mind. And so half the time she cries herself to sleep, because try as she might to deny it the hope has come back and she's in too deep to get out now.

He meets her when she gets off the train to return home for summer vacation and Astoria doesn't expect him to be there, especially not with roses. It's so sweet and beautiful and not what she'd expect from Draco at all so she finds herself smiling and she kisses him, glad she's not wearing her school uniform and that she decided to wear her hair down this morning because she's given him an excuse to brush it out of her face.

They spend the summer together, just the two of them, walking through parks or meeting in restaurants, but usually they just sit in his room and he talks while she listens because Astoria really can't think of anything to say except _you have beautiful eyes _and he has a thousand pent-up feelings just waiting to come out in a flood, and they do without him ever pausing for a breath until she leans in and kisses him her heart slamming against her chest. And this kiss is real and special and there isn't an alcohol between them and she's sure now, absolutely sure that they'll be together forever. Forgetting that she's Astoria Greengrass, she's down to earth and intelligent, she knows better than to think that way and should really be thinking ahead.

But she's not, she's being Astoria Greengrass reckless and irresponsible, putting her future in the hands of someone who first proclaimed his love for her in a drunken stupor, someone who most assuredly won't hold off another year, or two, or three. None of this enters her mind; she's caught up in the moment, the kiss, and the sheer beauty of it. Even though he's not just kissing her anymore and she's dangerously close to the border between love and stupidity. So damned close to having all of her dreams ripped away if one thing goes wrong. Because she's still Astoria Greengrass and he's still Draco Malfoy and no respectable pure-blood family would ever consider anything except an immediate wedding if something were to go wrong now.

But nothing does, not this time, and not the next, and Astoria is sure that this is a miracle and her previous inhibitions that nothing good could ever come out of a drunken kiss on Christmas Eve go away with every kiss, every touch, and every whisper of _I love you_ whether or not it's sincere.

She only tells Daphne when she hears the news and her sister who has never been responsible scolds her foolishness but swears to keep her secret even though she can't hold it in forever. And in the safety of her room Astoria finds herself playing with baby names and staring at her perfectly flat stomach just dreaming.

She ignores Draco, because he can't know, she doesn't want him to and truthfully she's afraid of what he might say. So when school starts she never responds to his letters even though they won't stop coming and each one pleads for a response getting more and more desperate as they progress.

It's a November night that she loses it, or him, or her she never even knows. But she can't stop crying even after she leaves the nurse and retires to her dorm room, she hugs her knees to her chest and sobs until there are no tears left and then she picks up her quill and tells him everything in a letter that never seems to end. A letter that's sprinkled with her tears, with smudged ink, and Astoria's soon to be broken heart.

He doesn't respond, not for the rest of November and December rolls around. But by then she's lost all hope and the old Astoria is back, the one that knows better than to believe in miracles. And yet she's broken because she made the mistake of falling in love with him and she did so, too fast and too hard. She burns every letter he ever sent her but it's not enough and she's left with emptiness as well as anger because he never even said _I never want to see you again _and that's all she needs to get over him because it will crush that voice in the back of her head whispering _I love you. _

Two days before she's supposed to go home for Christmas his owl flies into her room with a letter that just has two words on it _Marry me_ and Astoria can't help but be a little annoyed that he didn't ask her in person, or at all really, it's more of a command, an order, not a question. And she fully intends to say no because of it, but she ends up writing yes back instead and waits a whole day to send it to him.

This time she expects him to be there waiting for her but is still surprised when he actually is. He doesn't have roses this time and he's not holding a satin box but he's smiling and she finds herself running into his open arms and crying. Damn her school uniform and damn her braid, she doesn't hear a word he says though his mouth is moving, she just looks up at him and he cups her chin and wipes away her tears and she finds herself saying _you have beautiful eyes. _

It's here that he gets on his knees and proposes pulling out a little black box from his pocket and opens it to reveal a turquoise ring,

"Will you marry me?" He actually asks her this time even and even though she's already responded in a letter she answers him again.

"Yes." But it means so much more in person and it means so much more to actually be asked.

He slips on the ring and twirls her around kissing her and Astoria briefly considers that her own miracle has come to pass only to conclude that maybe finding love from a drunken kiss on Christmas Eve isn't such a miracle at all.

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**A/N: Please Review :) **


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